I recently came across this quote while reading in Chrysostom’s sermons on John’s Gospel. I thought it was just as relevant today. Furthermore, tell me who of you, when at home, ever takes the Christian Book in his hands and goes through what is contained therein, and studies Scripture? No one would be able to […]

Our state Baptist paper just ran a short piece I wrote with this title. It arose from discussions in my Johannine Literature class. I continue to be intrigued by watching how Jesus handles people, particularly in John’s gospel. This brief column deals with Nicodemus and the woman at the well. The theme could be continued […]

I have obviously been away from blogging for a while. I took my wife to convenient care Wednesday morning (a week ago) with sharp, terrible pains in her side. We were sent from there to the ER and eventually were in the hospital until Friday. There were some tense moments as the cause was unknown, […]

Voyage To Freedom: A Story of the Atlantic Crossing 1620, David Gay (Banner of Truth, 1984), pb., 149 pp. We have a couple of books on the Pilgrims but opted to begin with this one. It was not a great choice. The style of the book is ponderous, and the vocabulary is difficult. It was […]

Along Came Galileo, Jeanne Bendick (Beautiful Feet Books, 1999), pb., 95 pp. The next book after a string of really good books tends to be judged hard- and the Mr. Pipes books were really good! Therefore, it was with some uncertainty we moved to this book on Galileo. It is a brief book, so in […]

Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, by Bobbie Wolgemuth & Joni Eareckson Tada (Crossway, 2003), hb. 92 pp. As the previous posts should attest, I love hymns and want my children to do so as well. Thus, this title appealed to me about a year ago when I saw it. However, I was disappointed with the […]

The church of God in our day is in dire need of reformation once again. I believe that is a given among us. Yet, this is a daunting task and if we put our hands to it we will face exhaustion, desperation, despondency and frustration in addition to open resistance. In this then we ought […]

Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation, Douglas Bond (Christian Liberty Press, 2000), pb., 240 pp. This second volume of the Mr. Pipes books lived up to the standard set by the first volume. It was a great read which was eagerly anticipated by my boys each day and taught them great lessons. […]

Too often in our churches today we fail to appreciate the importance of the corporate aspect of our worship. We are encouraged to “forget that anyone else is around”, to “tune everyone else out,” or to “pretend it’s just you and God.” Have we forgotten that the Scriptures envision our worship as involving “addressing one […]

I am currently teaching my class on John’s gospel and letters here at Union. In dealing with John 2 I came back across this quote I had gleaned earlier from Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), a prominent Scottish Baptist preacher. This is a long quote, but I kept it all because it makes a good point about […]